Must-see attractions in Champagne

  • Cathedral Notre Dame in Reims, France

    Cathédrale Notre Dame

    Reims

    Imagine the extravagance of a French royal coronation. The focal point of such pomposity was Reims’ resplendent Gothic cathedral, begun in 1211 on a site…

  • The Palais du Tau in Reims.

    Palais du Tau

    Reims

    A Unesco World Heritage Site, this lavish former archbishop’s residence, redesigned in neoclassical style between 1671 and 1710, was where French princes…

  • Troyes

    16th-Century Troyes

    Troyes

    Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire…

  • Musée d’Art Moderne

    Troyes

    Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop’s palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste…

  • Avenue de Champagne

    Épernay

    Épernay’s handsome av de Champagne fizzes with maisons de champagne (Champagne houses). The boulevard is lined with mansions and neoclassical villas,…

  • Abbaye de Clairvaux Monastery

    Champagne

    Bernard de Clairvaux (1090–1153), nemesis of Abelard and preacher of the Second Crusade, founded this hugely influential Cistercian monastery in 1115…

  • Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul

    Troyes

    All at once imposing and delicate with its filigree stonework, Troyes' cathedral is a stellar example of champenoise Gothic architecture. The flamboyant…

  • Musée de la Vigne et du Vin

    Champagne

    This museum is so outstanding that it’s worth planning your day around a two-hour tour. Assembled by a family that has been making Champagne since 1872,…

  • Lighthouse of Verzenay

    Phare & Musée de Verzenay

    Champagne

    For the region’s best introduction to the art of growing grapes and the cycles of the seasons, head to the Phare de Verzenay, on a hilltop at the eastern…

  • Interior of Saint-Remi Basilica in Reims, Champagne, France.

    Basilique St-Rémi

    Reims

    This 121m-long former Benedictine abbey church, a Unesco World Heritage Site, mixes Romanesque elements from the mid-11th century (the worn but stunning…

  • Statue of Dom Perignon at Champagne house Moët & Chandon in Epernay, France.

    Dom Pérignon

    Épernay

    Everyone who visits Moët & Chandon invariably stops to strike a pose next to the statue of Dom Pérignon (c 1638–1715), after whom the prestige cuvée is…

  • Hôtel de Vauluisant

    Troyes

    This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion shelters a twinset of unique museums. The Musée de l’Art Champenois is a repository for the evocative…

  • Mémorial Charles de Gaulle

    Champagne

    The impressive Mémorial Charles de Gaulle presents graphic, easily digestible exhibits, rich in photos, which form an admiring biography of France’s…

  • Musée des Beaux-Arts

    Reims

    Lodged in an 18th-century abbey, this museum's rich collection stars one of four versions of Jacques-Louis David’s world-famous The Death of Marat (yes,…

  • Ruelle des Chats

    Troyes

    Off rue Champeaux (between Nos 30 and 32), a stroll along tiny ruelle des Chats (Alley of the Cats), as dark and narrow as it was four centuries ago – the…

  • Albert Levasseur

    Champagne

    You’re assured a warm – and English-speaking – welcome and a fascinating cellar tour at Albert Levasseur, run by a friendly Franco-Irish couple, which…

  • Cramant Champagne Bottle

    Champagne

    At the northern entrance to Cramant, this mammoth, Instagram-worthy Champagne bottle, emblazoned with the name of the village, is one hell of a magnum…

  • Église Ste-Madeleine

    Troyes

    Troyes’ oldest and most interesting neighbourhood church has an early Gothic nave and transept and a Renaissance-style choir and tower. The highlights…

  • Musée du Mariage

    Champagne

    Featuring colourful and often gaudy objects associated with 19th-century marriage traditions, highlights include a tableau of newlyweds in their nuptial…

  • Avize Viti Campus

    Champagne

    Many past, present and future Champagne makers learn, or are learning, their art and science at the Avize Viti Campus run by the Ministry of Agriculture…

  • Église St-Nicolas

    Champagne

    Once the abbey church of a Benedictine convent, Église St-Nicolas mixes Romanesque, Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles. There are no specific…

  • Halles du Boulingrin

    Reims

    The vaulted Halles du Boulingrin were a symbol of Reims’ emergence from the destruction of WWI when they began service as the city’s main food market in…

  • Atelier Renoir

    Champagne

    The Atelier Renoir has displays zooming in on the hallmarks of Renoir’s work (the female form, the vibrant use of colour and light), alongside original…

  • Musée du Cristal

    Champagne

    For insight into how crystal is made, visit the Musée du Cristal, where a 15-minute film highlights the different stages involved in crystal production. A…

  • Basilique St-Urbain

    Troyes

    Begun in 1262 by the Troyes-born Pope Urban IV, whose father’s shoemaker shop once stood on this spot, this church is exuberantly Gothic both inside and…

  • La Boisserie

    Champagne

    People flock by the coach-load to visit Charles de Gaulle’s vine-swathed home, La Boisserie, its elegant antique furnishings unchanged since he was laid…

  • La Cité du Vitrail

    Troyes

    Housed in the barn of the 18th-century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte, this free museum dazzles with 25 works of stained glass reaching from the 12th to the 21st…

  • Musée de la Reddition

    Reims

    The original Allied battle maps are still affixed to the walls of US General Dwight D Eisenhower’s headquarters, where Nazi Germany, represented by…

  • Église St-Pantaléon

    Troyes

    Faded with age and all the more enigmatic for it, this Renaissance-style, cruciform church, with its barrel-vaulted wood ceiling, is a great place to see…

  • Pope Urban II

    Champagne

    The highest point in Châtillon-sur-Marne is crowned by a 25m-high statue of Pope Urban II, dedicated in 1887, a particularly successful local boy (1042–99…

  • Volière des Cigognes Altavilloises

    Champagne

    Hautvillers is twinned with the Alsatian town of Eguisheim, which explains why several storks (including one rare black one) live here, an easy 500m walk…

  • Musée St-Rémi

    Reims

    Housed in a 17th- and 18th-century abbey, this museum homes in on local Gallo-Roman archaeology, 16th-century Flemish tapestries, medieval sculpture and…

  • Apothicairerie de l’Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte

    Troyes

    If you come down with an old-fashioned malady – scurvy, perhaps, or unbalanced humours – the place to go is this fully outfitted, wood-panelled pharmacy…

  • Église Abbatiale

    Champagne

    Part of a former Benedictine abbey, the Abbaye St-Pierre d'Hautvillers, founded in AD 650 by St Nivard, bishop of Reims, this church is liberally…

  • Espace des Renoir

    Champagne

    The Renoir trail in Essoyes begins at the Espace des Renoir, which also houses the tourist office. The centre screens a 15-minute film about the artist…

  • Joan of Arc Statue

    Reims

    A strangely expressionless statue of Joan of Arc, raised high on a rearing horse and bearing a sword, graces this square facing the cathedral. The so…

  • Porte de Mars

    Reims

    For a quick trip back to Roman Gaul, check out the massive Porte de Mars, a three-arched triumphal gate built in the 2nd century AD. The gate was…

  • Musée Hôtel Le Vergeur

    Reims

    Highlights in this 15th-century townhouse include a series of furnished period rooms (kitchen, smoking room, Napoléon III’s bedroom), some 50 wood…

  • Bibliothèque

    Reims

    Thanks to a donation from the US-based Carnegie Foundation, the lobby of the Bibliothèque boasts gorgeous 1920s mosaics, stained glass, frescos and an…